Nov 3, 2008 Nov 5, 2008 Tuesday November 4, 2008
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Stock Spy for Mac OS X gets revised stock news list
Posted by Dennis SellersStock-Spy.com has updated Stock Spy, its RSS stock news feeder, to version 1.6. The upgrade sports a revised stock news list that allows “instantaneous” news display.
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'REALbasic Developer' mag available in book format
Posted by Dennis SellersREALbasic Developer Magazine is reprinting the last year's issues into a perfect-bound book that will be shipping at the end of November. You can pre-order RBD Archive Volume 6, a perfect-bound book containing the full contents of Year Six of the mag, for US$37.50—25 percent off the regular price.
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Podcast #63: Netflix on Mac Goes Live and Apple Comments on New Mac Rumors
Netflix opens their Watch Instantly beta to anyone with an Intel Mac willing to opt-in. Apple breaks their usual media silence concerning rumors and shares its holiday hardware release plan in one sentence and we share the greatest iPhone pedestal ever. read more
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Trailrunner can now display recordings from the iPod 3G, iPod touch

Posted by Dennis Sellers TrailRunner, a Mac OS X solution for folks doing long distance sports, has been updated to version 1.8. Among other improvements, the latest update can display recordings from current iPhone 3G and iPod touch models equipped with a GPS.
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Toshiba announces projector with voice guidance
Posted by Dennis SellersToshiba has launced the lightweight TLP-X200U wireless 3LCD projector, which it says is the world's first projector with voice guidance. This feature is designed to provide ease of use, preventative maintenance updates and a lower total cost of ownership.
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XChange releases pdfToolbox Server 4
Posted by Dennis SellersXChange International has released pdfToolbox Server 4. From the developers of the preflight technology in Adobe Acrobat, pdfToolbox Server 4 offers PDF preflighting and automatic correction, color management, presentation tools, imposition and more.
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VPN Tracker 5.4 adds support for Network Security Appliance 240
Posted by Dennis SellersEquinux has released VPN Tracker 5.4, the newest version of its IPSec-based VPN client for Mac OS X. The upgrade adds support for the newest Network Security Appliance 240.
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Apple releases Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.3
Filed under: Software UpdateApple just released an update for RAW camera support for Mac OS X Leopard, Aperture 2, and iPhoto '08. With this new update, the following list of RAW-format cameras are supported: Canon EOS 50D Nikon D90 Sony DSLR-A900 Nikon Coolpix P6000 Apple also notes that this update "addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability." You can download this update by opening up Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from the Apple Support downloads site.Thanks for the tip, Tony! Apple releases Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.3 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Notebook Fan or Desktop Diehard?
IDC reported this week that 2008's third quarter saw U.S. domestic notebook shipments cruise past a 50 percent share of the personal computer market, not for the first time but reaching a convincing 55.2 percent. As usual, the broader market trails Apple in the trend line, in this instance by a wider-than-usual margin. Notebooks' first exceeded a 50 percent share of Apple's system sales back in 2004 when it sold some 1,665,000 laptops vs. 1,625,000 iMacs and Power Macs. The only question I have about this is how come it took so long? For more than a decade I've been advocating notebooks as “the logical Mac” for most users, being a convert since it took me about half a day after unpacking my first PowerBook a dozen years ago to recognize that portables were the way I wanted to go with computing, and I've never really looked back except for a brief dalliance with a G4 Cube in 2001. Ever tried using a desktop computer in bed? I like computing while reclining, and keep one of my quiet, cool-running Pismo PowerBooks by my bed most of the time, parked on a Laptop Laidback stand — not a mode that lends itself to practicality with a desktop computer. (more…)
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HoudahSpot for Leopard adds support for keyboard shortcuts
Posted by Dennis SellersHoudah Software has updated HoudahSpot, a desktop search tool based on Apple's Spotlight technology, to version 2.3. The upgrade improves the signature BlitzSearch feature by adding support for keyboard shortcuts. BlitzSearch may now be used to its fullest without ever touching the mouse.
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Traktor Pro, Traktor Scratch Pro available in stores; demo available
Posted by Dennis SellersNative Instruments has announced that Traktor Pro and Traktor Scratch Pro, the next versions of its digital DJ solutions with MIDI and time-code control, are available in stores. Also, a demo is available for download.
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Apple: Our Holiday Line-Up is Set
Stop the presses, take back all the gossip, and no more doctored pictures. There will be no updated Mac mini or iMacs this holiday season. With the recent updates to the MacBooks and iPods, Apple is taking a breather on their hardware releases. All rumors of updated machines were quickly disregarded when Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld, "Our holiday line-up is set."read more
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MacJury looks at Proposition 8, Comcast's bandwidth cap
Posted by Dennis SellersIn a new edition The MacJury panel looks at Apple's decision to take a public stand on California Proposition 8. Companies often support political candidates or even parties, but individual initiatives are a different story.
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iPhone Developer Demonstrates Audio Bug on iPhone
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Otterbox announces Impact Series cases for the iPhone 3G
Posted by Dennis SellersOtterbox has announced the Impact Series of cases for the iPhone 3G. They're silicon, skin-like cases that sport impact absorbing features in a slim fit design.
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World of Goo game comes to the Mac
Posted by Dennis Sellers2D Boy has released World of Goo for the Mac. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. The game costs US$20; a demo is available for download.
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SerialMailer for Mac OS X gets advanced template support
Posted by Dennis SellersFalkon Ware has updated its SerialMailer bulk email app for Mac OS X to version 5.9. The upgrade offers advanced template support as an way to embed messages in already existent designs at send time.
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Nov. 4 'Macsimum Podcast' now available
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Macsimum Podcast for Nov. 4 is now available here and the RSS feed is here.
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MacBook 3G: Ringer or Red Herring?
Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between professional industry analysts and Apple fanboys coming up with dream specs for their ideal notebook. Such is the case with the most recent prediction by Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics. His call for the (immediate) future of the MacBook? 3G HSDPA connectivity. Cellular broadband connectivity built-in to notebooks is no revolutionary move, but what does Apple specifically stand to gain from including it in their own machines? According to Mawston, the chance to take advantage of network operators frothing at the mouth to cross-sell the notebooks to existing iPhone 3G customers. But are they really so eager? (more…)
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Kindle clamor keeps confusing
Despite being given the royal thumbs-up from Oprah last week, the Amazon Kindle looks to be a technology in search of a market. After some hands-on experience, I must say that the reality is much worse than I imagined.
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New MacBook trackpad not clicking for some users
The no-button trackpad unveiled on Apple's new MacBooks and MacBook Pros is failing to register some clicks, according to early adopters.
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Review: iHome Capsule Sound iHM77 Rechargeable Mini Speakers
iHome's new Capsule Sound iHM77 ($50) is a novel take on the pocket speaker genre. When Altec Lansing released Orbit-MP3, a $40 puck-like speaker with one large driver and space for you to insert your own three AAA batteries, we found the approach practical. iHM77 instead includes two smaller, dome-shaped speaker drivers with their own rechargeable batteries, a fabric carrying pouch, and a cord-managed combination USB power recharger and auxiliary…
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'Macsimum Recommended Reading' for Nov. 4
Posted by Dennis Sellers“Apple investigating problems with MacBook Pro's glass trackpad: A new buyer of Apple's uninbody notebooks emailed Steve Jobs about issues he was having with the unit's new glass trackpad and hinge, and reports getting a prompt reply via the telephone addressing his problems.”—AppleInsider
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Video: Daily Debrief: Father of the iPod steps down
As the man considered the father of Apple's iPod steps down, it becomes clear why the company was eager to hire Mark Papermaster, an IBM chip designer. On this Daily Debrief, CNET's Kara Tsuboi and Tom Krazit discuss the reasoning behind the move and why a consumer product company like Apple would want a guy with server experience heading up their lucrative iPod division.
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New Apple leader sets stage for the future of the iPod
Chip design wizard Mark Papermaster is taking control of Apple's iPod and iPhone hardware engineering as the portable music player of the last decade becomes a computer.
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Matt Gemmell on the UI Design of His iPhone App ‘Favorites’
Sweating the details. ★
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Twitter Vote Report Going Strong
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Get yer Apple blade servers, right here?
IBM's playing tough, but if Apple gets to keep Mark Papermaster, don't expect Steve Jobs to suddenly go ga-ga for enterprise computing.
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A Blade Server Guy in an iPod World: What Gives?
A former IBM executive is going against the company's wishes and joining Apple. Mark Papermaster, previously vice president of IBM's blade server unit, will become head of the iPod and iPhone development team, Apple has confirmed. IBM has already filed a lawsuit to try to stop his hire. Papermaster is under a one-year non-compete agreement, IBM says, due to his inside knowledge of the company's workings. Litigation is now pending, with IBM promising to take the case to its fullest potential in court.
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Tony Fadell, Senior VP of iPod Division, Leaving Apple
To be replaced by Mark Papermaster, from IBM. ★
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Best Performing S&P 500 Stocks During the Bush Years
Even though the stock market as a whole hasn't done well while Bush has been in office, there have been plenty of individual stocks that have made people a lot of money. Of the 500 stocks currently in the S&P 500, 90 of them are up more than 100% since 12/12/00, 37 are up more than 200%, and 10 are up more than 500%. As shown below, Southwestern Energy (SWN) is up the most at 3,550%. On December 12, 2000, SWN was trading at just under 93 cents per share. At its current price of $33.94, the stock has doubled 5 times under Bush. Coincidentally, SWN is based in Houston, which is pretty much Bush's hometown. Apple Inc. (AAPL) ranks second behind SWN with a gain of 1,291% during the Bush years. [[RRC]], [[ISRG]], and [[GILD]] round out the top five behind SWN and AAPL.click to enlarge
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Apple Dismisses Product Update Rumors
In one fell swoop, Apple has put an end to the “speculating.” Stating that their “holiday line-up is set,” Bill Evans, an Apple spokesman, has put to bed the rumors that were circulating Apple news sites stating an update to the iMac and Mac mini was coming. The source, a comment made by David Sellers, believing that Apple would refresh the aforementioned models to bring them in line with the recently updated MacBook/MacBook Pro as early as next week, was relayed across the Apple blogosphere with much vigor. However, in speaking with Sellers, we were able to confirm that it was pure speculation on his part. While there is no doubt in our minds that a refresh would have been welcomed, that is obviously not going to be case. So, if you were hoping to get an NVIDIA-powered Mac mini or a DisplayPort toting iMac before Christmas, best not hold your breath, but chin up, there's always Macworld.
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RapidWeaver 4.2 update kills bugs
Filed under: Software, Odds and endsRealmac Software has updated their easy Web site creation tool RapidWeaver to version 4.2 (not 2.2! Sorry). The new version is primarily a bug fix, but also adds a couple of new features.The bugs that were squashed include: An issue when undoing set/remove links Blog plugin confused image file names in body and summary fields Growl notifications no longer occur when RapidWeaver is in the foreground The application no longer hangs on quit No more "System Exception 11" when duplicating themes Now able to add 3GP and M4V files to Movie Albums The new features include the ability to hold down either the Command or Option key while starting RapidWeaver to disable all third-party add-ons until the app is restarted, and the ability to add and remove links from the sidebar is available again.This is a free update for existing RapidWeaver owners.RapidWeaver 4.2 update kills bugs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple, Psystar schedule trial in case management filing
Apple and Psystar habve filed a joint case management statement last week as the legal wheels keeping (slowly) rolling.Read More...
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comScore: nearly 25 percent of Japanese Internet users accessed iTunes in August
Posted by Dennis SellerscomScore, which measures the digital world, has released a study of music-related sites in Japan finding that nearly 40 percent of the Japanese online population visited an entertainment music site in August.
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Apple iPod chief stepping down; company taps IBM veteran
Apple's Tony Fadell, one of the company's top executives responsible for the success of the iPod, is stepping aside and will replaced by a longtime IBM executive. Apple may face suit over noncompete clause.
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Apple: No more new hardware in 2008
Filed under: Hardware, Apple, HolidaysEarlier this week, Apple told Macworld Magazine (in so many words) that all hardware updates are complete for 2008. "Our holiday line-up is set," said spokesman Bill Evans. There was a rumor of an iMac update, but that's now be squashed. What you see is what you're going to get.With the recent updates to the laptop and iPod lines (and less recently, the iPhone), the iMac is ripe for a refresh at January's Macworld Expo. The Mac Pro will be ready by January as well, but I don't expect an update to their pro-level machine at a consumer show.At any rate, Apple's product line is ready for your holiday shopping dollars. Our shopping series of posts will begin soon, so keep an eye out. [Via Ars]Apple: No more new hardware in 2008 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Free O'Reilly 'Creating Facebook Applications' webcast November 7, 2008
Posted by Dave MertenFacebook is taking the world by storm! With more than 100 million connected users and an open platform that allows developers to have full access to those users, you now have one of the most powerful opportunities ever to put your web app in front of thousands, even millions in...
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Safari, OS X October market shares drop, but not by much
The browser and operating system market share data for October was recently released by Net Applications. It shows small market share declines for Mac OS X and the Safari browser, but we don't think there's a reason to be alarmed.Read More...
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Pingdom posts insight into latest Mobile Me outage
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, MobileMeDespite the server-side updates Apple detailed last week, the company's beleaguered Mobile Me service is still problematic for many users. Yesterday, we received a number of e-mails complaining that Apple's Me.com domain was reporting 404 errors. Today, the fine folks at Pingdom.com (which monitors website uptime), posted some details about what was going on. It appears that there was an issue with the Me.com redirect. If a user directly typed in http://me.com/mail, he or she could successfully access the server. Trying to access the Me.com domain, however, led 404 HTTP error response with the words "Not Found: Resource does not exist," appearing on the page. This outage lasted nearly seven hours, from 2:29 AM EST - 9:25 AM EST on November 3, 2008. Because the outage occurred at night in the continental United States, most affected users were from Europe, where the outage lasted for most of the work day. If this was a simple redirect error (which it appears to be), why did it take seven hours to fix? My guess is that no one at Apple was alerted to the problem until someone came into work at 6:00 AM PST and started seeing error request e-mails or had problems accessing the domain. This is a problem. If Apple is truly dedicated to making Mobile Me a service it can be "proud of by the end of this year," the company should really consider having either dedicated 24-hour Mobile Me IT support (or more support) or figure out a way to resolve errors like this in a more timely matter. Redirect errors or glitches are not uncommon, but any company trying to run an international communications service needs to get on the ball. Despite my vocal misgivings about the service, before it even launched, I signed up for a 60-day trial in early July -- so I could "eat my own dogfood" -- as they say. And even though my service was extended for free until December, I canceled in September. Why? Because the service proved it wasn't reliable enough for any sort of e-mail communication, its calendar syncing was complete junk, and it seemed like every time I tried to access the service, it was either slow as all get out or unavailable. Free or not, that just isn't worth the hassle. At least with Google, it apologizes when it has an outage and if you pay $50 a year, you get actual phone support that doesn't just go to a random Apple Care person with no knowledge or information about the issue. Are you still a Mobile Me subscriber? Sound off in the comments!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Poll: Which OS do you prefer?
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops We were just wondering for no particular reason: which OS do you prefer? View PollPoll: Which OS do you prefer? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple patent involves method, apparatus for digital image processing system
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has been granted a patent (number 7447374) from the US Patent & Trademark Office for a method and apparatus for an intuitive digital image processing system that enhances digital images. The invention relates to the field of digital photography. In particular, it discloses a system for enhancing digital images.
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Apple patent is for a color level graphical user interface
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has been granted a patent (number 7447351) from the US Patent & Trademark Office for a color level graphical user interface. The invention relates to the field of digital image processing. In particular the present invention discloses a graphical user interface and methods for performing color correction and color...
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Apple granted patent for waking sleeping devices on a network
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has received another patent (number 7447927) from the US Patent & Trademark Office relating to waking sleeping devices on a network, this time for waking devices on a remote LAN. The invention relates to computer networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for...
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Apple Confirms No New Products for Rest of 2008
Every year there’s some stupid rumor that Apple is going to release new products late in the year, well into the holiday season, despite the fact that it would make no strategic sense to do so. And every year it doesn’t happen. Good for Apple to just state the obvious. ★
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Apple patent involves a semiconductor die package
Posted by Dennis SellersAn Apple patent (number 7447389) for a semiconductor die package with internal bypass capacitors has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. The invention relates to techniques for reducing voltage noise in electrical circuits. More specifically, the present invention relates to a package for a semiconductor die which contains...
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WD TV HD Media Player smacked up, flipped, rubbed down
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment Western Digital's WD TV HD Media Player kept a low profile before hitting shelves this month, but with only $99 separating MaddHat.com from a thorough teardown, the inevitable next step was taken. Besides snapshots inside and out -- and the ubiquitous iPhone size comparison photo -- a quick runthrough with a variety of MKV-packed videos revealed delightfully nerdy results. The 1080p h.264 decoding was smooth, although some odd sharpening on 720p files while in 1080p output mode, and less than optimal results with 1080i-encoded files were noted. 1080p24 support didn't make it into the box, same for .ISO direct support -- no worries though, as it wasn't enough to stop the .m2ts files in the Blu-ray backups from playing directly. Good for the price, but with stiff competition -- Popcorn Hour anyone? -- being "good enough" in this sector is getting harder, pics and details are beyond the read link.WD TV HD Media Player smacked up, flipped, rubbed down originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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How to Get a Boatload of Free Disk Space
I thought that might get your attention. Well, boatload might be an exaggeration, although how about 8GB of free storage space? More importantly, how about they support either the Mac or the iPhone? As part of any backup solution, having offsite storage is pretty key these days to protect your data. Recently, I was looking at free alternatives to MobileMe and/or other paid storage services on the Web. I wanted to see which of these services integrated with Apple's product line (Mac and iPhone). When I say integrate, I mean drag-and-drop, simple interfaces that do not require me to sign-into a web service to use. Of the many out there, here is what I found. Please note, two of the four services mentioned here are beta, so please use them at your own risk. Also note that two of these four services are provided by technology startups and you can't be sure during these economic times just how long these businesses might last. Thankfully, all four services are great in their own way so I highly recommend each. (more…)
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New iPhone ad pimps Urbanspoon, solves life's dilemmas
The latest iPhone ad showcases another great app, Urbanspoon, as well as how easy it can be to use a well-designed app to "solve life's dilemmas."Read More...
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iPhone campaign purportedly costs Optus $44 million
Posted by Dennis SellersSingtel, Optus' Singapore-based parent, has revealed Optus's campaign to use the iPhone launch to drive new customers on to its 3G mobile subscriber base deflated its EBITDA earnings by $44 million in the three months ending Sept. 30, reports Australian Business. Optus is the Australian mobile carrier for the iPhone.
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O'Reilly Media releases 'QuickBooks 2009: The Missing Manual'
Posted by Dave MertenThousands of small companies and nonprofit organizations rely on QuickBooks to keep their company finances on track. And while other books offer mind-numbing feature tours that are about as clear as tax form instructions, QuickBooks 2009: The Missing Manual is designed to help readers at every technical level.
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Apple patent is for embedded thermal-electric cooling modules
Posted by Dennis SellersAn Apple patent (number 744033) for embedded thermal-electric cooling modules for the surface spreading of heat has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. The invention relates to heat-transfer techniques. More specifically, the present invention relates to solid-state cooling components that reduce surface temperatures in computer systems.
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News: Namco releases Tamagotchi game for Click Wheel iPods
Namco has released its new Tamagotchi: 'Round the World game for Click Wheel iPods. The game lets players pick one of four Tamagotchi, and then play one of six missions that take place across three differently-themed planets, each of which features Gaiatchi, or living clouds, plants, geysers and seedlings that populate the planet. Players interact with the Gaiatchi through mini-games and activities such as rock paper scissors, dancing, memory…
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FBR Chip Analyst Craig Berger’s Questionable Track Record With Apple
Andy Zaky: One thing that this article should clearly demonstrate is that Craig Berger’s rantings on production rates have an almost zero correlation when it comes to actual sales. ★
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SchoolDude.com solution is Mac compatible
Posted by Dennis SellersSchoolDude.com— a provider of online software designed for managing the technology, facility and business operations of educational institutions—says it's enhanced its IT asset management solution, ITAMDirect, to include “simple audit” functionality and IP-enabled device discovery. Designed for both Mac and PC environments, ITAMDirect's new functionality will allow IT teams at...
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Celebrate Election Day on your iPhone
Ars celebrates America as US citizens head off to the polls to vote for the next president. Stay in the spirit with these six great Election Day ideas for your iPhone.Read More...
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DSi already hacked, greets us with a lusty 'Hello World!'
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds We love those two magic words: "Hello World!" It's not even been a week since the DSi's Japanese launch and someone has hacked the handheld, stirring up all our homebrew dreams in the process. The coder in question has yet to release any specifics, but the touchscreen seems to be blank (you can make of that tidbit what you will). Exciting, yes? Still, until any other details emerge we're inclined to be a little skeptical. Just a little. In the meantime, be sure to catch the glorious video of the event after the break. Continue reading DSi already hacked, greets us with a lusty 'Hello World!'DSi already hacked, greets us with a lusty 'Hello World!' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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First Looks: Namco Tamagotchi 'Round the World
As one of the fruits of Namco's merger with toymaker Bandai, Click Wheel iPods have received Tamagotchi: 'Round the World ($5), a game based on Bandai's once-popular series of egg-shaped digital pets -- the ones people had to interact with to keep them happy. The iPod game lets you pick from four Tamagotchi characters who can be controlled via the Click Wheel, as they interact on landscape-style backgrounds with other plant and animal characters called…
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VectorDesigner for Mac OS X now supports multi-touch trackpad for panning and zooming
Posted by Dennis SellersTweakersoft has updated VectorDesigner, a drawing app for Mac OS X, to version 1.4.6. The upgrade supports the new unibody MacBook/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air multi-touch trackpad for panning and zooming.
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News: OtterBox intros iPhone 3G Impact Case
OtterBox has introduced its new Impact Case for the iPhone 3G. Unlike prior OtterBox cases, which provided at least some level of water protection, the Impact Case is an open-faced, form-fitting silicone sleeve. It offers open access to the headphone jack, ring/silent switch, Dock Connector port, speaker, microphone, sensors and camera, silicone pass-through buttons for the home, sleep/wake, and volume buttons, and inner corners designed to…
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Using the iPhone to keep a 2.0 voter record in the first 2.0 election
Voting as recorded by the iPhone
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See all new iPhone/iPod touch apps by category
Just like music and podcasts in the iTunes Store, you can use Browse mode in the iPhone/iPod touch App Store. You'll find a Browse link in the box at the top right of the App Store home page. Click it, and you'll see the typical iTunes Store three-pane browser. Click on App Store in the first column, then choose a Category in the second column to see a list of all apps within that category.Because this view is list-based, without the fancy web interface, it's much faster (plus you see all entries in one long list, instead of 21 per page). The really nice thing, though, is that you can add your own columns to the list are. Control-click on the list header row, and select Release Date from the pop-up menu. You can then click on the Release Date header, and you've got a list of every app within the category, sorted by release date. Repeat the process and add Popularity, and you can sort by popularity instead.This way you can sort the apps the way you l...
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Make iTunes play louder...
Given the title, you might think that this either isn't a hint, or it's a "give-me-a-break-mike" hint at that. But hang with me.I've always been frustrated that my wife's iBook way outshined my MacBook when I played iTunes -- even with iTunes and internal volumes set to max. Then Leopard comes, and I did a Quick Look on a music file in the Finder (select the file and hit the Space Bar). I noticed that the Finder played the song much louder than did iTunes.Eventually, I figured out that if in iTunes you enable the equalizer (Window » Equalizer then click the On button), and set the Preamp to its max, the volume now matches the volume of Quick Look in the Finder, less any adjusting on the equalizer. I already had the equalizer on, but the Preamp was set to 0.
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Recover from a missing Photoshop scratch disk
Against Photoshop's advice, I've set an external hard drive as my primary Photoshop scratch disk. But when I recently left my external drive at home, Photoshop refused to start -- it displayed an error message that read "Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available," without an option to change scratch disk. Clicking OK closed Photoshop.Thankfully, as it is with many things Mac, keyboard shortcuts work wonders. Holding down Command and Option while opening Photoshop allowed me to change the scratch disk's storage location.
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Two Apple VPs exit to -- you guessed it -- spend more time with family
Filed under: Apple CorporateAccording to a press release issued by Apple this morning, two Apple vice presidents are leaving the company for personal reasons, "as they devote more time to their young family." iPod division senior vice president Tony Fadell and his wife, Danielle Lambert, vice president of human resources, will "reduce their roles" at Apple. Lambert will stay until the end of the year to transition to a successor. "Tony and Dani have each made important contributions to Apple over the past eight years. We're sorry to see Dani go, and are looking forward to working with Tony in his new capacity," said Steve Jobs in the press release. Former IBM chip executive Mark Papermaster will be joining Apple later this month to replace Fadell, and will gain the new title of Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering. He's expected to bring his 25 years of experience to Apple's server technologies, as well. Papermaster unfortunately arrives with some baggage: IBM filed suit against Papermaster attempting to forbid him from taking his knowledge of the Power chip architecture to other companies. IBM said in a statement to CNET that "Mr. Papermaster's employment by Apple is a violation of his agreement with IBM against working for a competitor should he leave IBM. We will vigorously pursue this case in court." [Via MacDailyNews.]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Mark Papermaster joins Apple; Tony Fadell cuts back on his work
Posted by Dennis Sellers It's official: Apple has announced that Mark Papermaster is joining the company as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to CEO Steve Jobs. Papermaster, who comes to Apple from IBM, will lead Apple's iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams.
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Upcoming iPhone production cuts may be due to slowing demand
Recent production checks suggest that Apple is cutting its iPhone production this quarter by more than expected, and may be making to to 40 percent fewer iPhones in the coming months.Read More...
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Namco releases Tamagotchi: ‘Round the World for iPod
Posted by Dennis SellersNamco Networks, a publisher and developer of mobile games and entertainment for mass-market casual gamers, has released Tamagotchi: 'Round the World. It's based on the digital pet toy and game series, and is available at the Apple App Store for US$4.99.
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iPod Chief Switch: What it Could Mean for Apple
For those of you who don't know, Apple is currently embroiled in a legal dispute over former IBM exec Mark Papermaster, whom they recently lured away from the IT firm. The apparent purpose of pinching Papermaster, according to news this week, is to replace iPod chief Tony Fadell. It's a big mess that's attracting a lot of attention. The shift raises larger questions about just how far a non-compete clause can extend, and points to major overhauls coming up in Apple's iPod line. First, IBM is reluctant to see Papermaster go to Apple. Understandably so, considering the former VP's role as one of the main architects of IBM's POWER microprocessor technology, which formed the basis for the Apple-IBM-Motorola developed PowerPC architecture. As Apple competes directly with IBM in server, PC, and microprocessor tech (owing to the recent purchase of P.A. Semi), IBM is claiming that Papermaster would be violating his non-compete clause and potentially transferring valuable IP and trade secrets to his new employer. (more…)
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Apple patents DHCP hack for Wake-on-WAN
Apple has received another patent relating to waking sleeping devices on a network, this time for waking devices on a remote LAN: In a sleep state, a system can typically receive packets of lower-layer protocols, such as Ethernet, but cannot respond to ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) requests. Unfortunately, being able to respond to ARP packets is often necessary for receiving packets of upper-layer protocols, such as IP (Internet Protocol). Hence, the wake-up packet is generally sent using a lower-layer protocol, such as Ethernet, instead of using an upper-layer protocol, such as IP. Unfortunately, such lower-layer protocols can only be used for sending packets within a LAN. — Description, U.S. Patent 7,447,927, November 4, 2008 Apple's solution cleverly exploits the existing DHCP protocol to allow it to work on existing devices, much like Bonjour cleverly exploits DNS: Specifically, one embodiment of the present invention exploits the following properties of DHCP: (a) most routers in a network are DHCP relay agents, (b) DHCP packets can carry a user-defined payload, and (c) DHCP allows a remote system to specify a hardware address which the relay agent uses to send a DHCP packet to the target system. — Description, U.S. Patent 7,447,927, November 4, 2008 A previous patent relating to waking sleeping devices on a network involved sleep proxies.
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Photoshop.com adds storage options, new features
Posted by Dennis SellersAdobe has updated Photoshop.com, the online destination that provides users with a solution for editing, managing, storing, and sharing photos online.
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Apple plays staff musical chairs in iPod, hardware divisions
Despite a lawsuit from IBM to prevent the move, Apple has announced its new VP of Hardware Engineering, Mark Papermaster. On the downside, the VP of Human Resources and SVP of iPod Division, who designed the original iPod for Apple, are departing.Read More...
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Hints turns eight...
Today not only marks Election Day in the United States (vote early, vote often!), but also the eighth anniversary of the launch of macosxhints.com. Obviously, a lot has changed in eight years, and the pace of hints here lately has slowed -- but that's not surprising, given the continuing maturation of OS X itself. But with roughly 12,000 hints in the database, we've covered a lot of OS X-related ground during those eight years.One thing that hasn't changed is the mission of the site: to share OS X tips and tricks with anyone interested in reading them. After all, it's the community that really makes the site work -- only about 1,400 of those 12,000 hints have my name on them. That's why every hint ever published is still available to anyone who wants to read them; what the community helps to build should always be freely accessible to that community.Thanks to all of you for making this site ...
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HTC goes Asia-Pacific; G1 in China by July?
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds While the iPhone has an on-again off-again relationship with the Chinese market, seemingly unable to commit to that most populous of nations, unlocked HTC G1s are said to be selling like gangbusters there, a tidbit that surely didn't escape HTC's notice. By the sound of it the company is ready to make its feelings official, pledging its undying love (and Android handsets) to arrive in Asia-Pac markets in the first half of 2009. Additionally, the Touch 3G should be on sale in Taiwan as of now, with the Touch HD hitting there before the end of the year. While China isn't specifically mentioned in the report, it's certainly the major market in that region. If HTC could beat Apple to the streets of Shanghai that would be a coup of epic proportions, setting the stage for a global battle of smartphone dominance. Place your bets, folks.HTC goes Asia-Pacific; G1 in China by July? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple Rumors: Mac Upgrades and iPhone Production Drop
Fresh off recent upgrades to Macbooks last month and with no iTunes chatter to replicate Harmonix's Beatles' conquest, the Applevine (aka Apple (AAPL) rumors and speculation) surprisingly came to life to start this week with a couple new speculative suggestions.On the Mac front: Apple-watching website MacNN is reporting their sources say upgrades to the Mac Mini and iMac computers could be announced on November 10th.
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Apple's iPod chief to step down
The company says Tony Fadell, a longtime executive who headed the iPod division, will step down and be replaced by IBM's Mark Papermaster.
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News: Apple posts new iPhone 3G advertisement
Apple has posted its latest TV advertisement for the iPhone 3G. Titled “Dilemmas,” the spot continues Apple's recent trend of highlighting only one app in each commercial, with this particular ad highlighting the Urbanspoon application and its feature which lets users shake the device to get recommendations on local restaurants. The new ad is now available for viewing on Apple’s website. ...
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TweakerSoft introduces CoffeeBreak 1.0 for iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersTweakerSoft has introduced CoffeeBreak 1.0 a “coffee junkie app” for the iPhone and iPod touch. Developed specifically to leverage the iPhone's GPS abilities and interface, CoffeeBreak uses a 3D rendered and animated user interface to quickly discover and compute the route to the nearest coffee shop.
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Mobile Banking comes to the iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersAT&T and Firethorn Holdings have teamed up for a new app for the iPhone: Mobile Banking, which is available for free at the Apple App Store. The software lets you access financial information or initiate transactions.
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MacOSG: Mac owner gets call from Apple concerning trackpad and hinge problems on new MacBook Pros
Posted by Dave MertenAn owner of a new aluminum MacBook Pro emailed Steve Jobs concerning issues he was having with the unit's new glass trackpad and hinge, reports AppleInsider. The owner got a prompt reply via the telephone addressing his problems.
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Association of REALbasic Professionals is now open
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Association of REALbasic Professionals (ARBP) is now open for business. At the new members-only web site you can purchase a membership, download software from the code repository, participate in the forums, look for REALbasic jobs and save over US$450 with discounts on a variety of REALbasic-related software.
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First Look: Mobile Banking on AT&T
Filed under: Odds and ends, Freeware, iPhone, App StoreWhile a lot of us have had internet banking for years, who would have thought that AT&T would have come up with a mobile banking app that lets you check accounts and pay bills for a number of banks through a single iPhone app?Mobile Banking on AT&T (click opens iTunes) from Firethorn Holdings, LLC is exactly that -- an iPhone app that gives you full control over your money at 50 different banks nationwide. While the majority of the banks listed appear to be in the southeast USA, several nationwide banks including Wachovia, SunTrust, and USAA are participating in the program.I was pleased to see that my business bank, FirstBank, with brick and mortar banks in Colorado, Arizona, and California, was one of the companies on the AT&T list. You need to sign up through your bank's secure website, enter your iPhone number, pick a six-digit PIN, then perform an authorization from the device using a code displayed on the website. Once activated, you can see balances, make transfers, and pay ebills.What's your favorite iPhone banking app? Or have you moved all of your funds to a coffee can buried in the back yard? Leave a comment!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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MacOSG: 'Mac 911' by Christopher Breen
Posted by Dave MertenMacworld Senior Editor Christopher Breen offers tips to Apple User Groups from his “Mac 911” support column in Macworld Magazine. Below are some of the problems and questions he address this month.
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Software Updates & New Releases For Week Ending 2008-11-01
While the highlight of my week was seeing the release of some new security software (albeit, one that needs work), there was a great deal happening in the rest of the OS X application world that is worth a mention. VLC media player - 0.9.5 - The de-facto, plays-anything, multi-platform media player get a small bump that plugs three security holes (CVE-2008-4686, CVE-2008-4654 & CVE-2008-3964), enhances closed caption parsing and fixes a few bugs. I'm still somewhat disappointed that VLC does not make it possible to make your built-in drive “region free” on newer Intel Macs, but it's important to install the update, if only to keep your system defenses as sharp as possible. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] Audacity - 1.3.6 - This very handy audio-editing utility has a small version update which greatly reduced the footprint of saved projects and increases support for MIDI content. Audacity's temporary/working directory is now more easily accessible by less technical OS X users (yay!) and FFmpeg has been updated to the latest release. Details: Free! [10.4/10.5; Intel/PPC] (more…)
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'Macsimum' readers offered special discount on Witch app for Mac OS X
Posted by Dennis SellersMany Tricks is offering Macsimum readers a special 25 percent rebate for their Witch application. You can take advantage of the deal by using the special rebate code, macsimumnews, at the Many Tricks' web site. The software normally costs approximately US$12.50.
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News: Apple iPod, iPhone Senior VP Fadell out, replaced by IBM's Papermaster
Tony Fadell, senior vice president of Apple's iPod division, “father of the iPod,” and an executive involved in the development of the iPhone, is leaving the company for personal reasons, Apple has announced. According to the announcement, Fadell will remain at Apple as an advisor to the CEO; his wife Danielle Lambert, vice president of Human Resources, will also be leaving the company. In Fadell's place, Mark Papermaster,…
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Review: MacBook Air still a good choice—for a certain niche of users
Posted by Dennis SellersEditor's note: this is an updated version of my original critique of the MacBook Air. Apple has updated the MacBook Air, offering more bang for the buck. However, while it's fine for what it is, it's still a boutique item that will appeal only to a particular group of users.
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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News
Even more firms may gain access to TARP. Sources say the Treasury may use some of its $700B rescue fund to buy stakes in financing companies such as GE's (GE) GE Capital and CIT Group (CIT). Presently the program only includes publicly-traded banks and insurers, although the Treasury is already mulling opening the door to some privately-held firms. The U.S. government could eventually own even more of the American financial system than first envisioned. Yahoo, Google tone down ad tie-up. Yahoo (YHOO) and Google (GOOG) submitted a revised version of their search-ad pact to the Justice Department in the hope gaining approval. New provisions limit the scope of the deal, including shortening the agreement to two years from ten, and capping Yahoo's revenue from the deal to 25% of its search revenue total; previously there was no cap. The revised plan also gives Google advertisers the ability to opt out of having their ads displayed on Yahoo sites. It's unclear whether the changes will suffice to appease regulators who worry the deal will allow Google (GOOG) to monopolize online advertising. Separately, Yahoo said Monday Microsoft (MSFT) executive Jeff Dossett will take the lead position in its online media properties after veteran Scott Moore left "for other opportunities." UBS posts earnings, warnings. UBS (UBS) confirmed a Q3 profit of 296M Swiss francs ($256.3M) helped by credit and tax gains, with outflows of 49.3B francs from its wealth management unit and 34.4B francs from its asset management unit. The world's largest wealth manager, UBS had already reported much of its Q3 results last month when it announced a capital injection of 6B franc from the Swiss government and said it would unload $60B of risky assets into a central bank fund. UBS noted some positive client money flows in October, but warned 'difficult' market conditions would hurt fee-earning businesses and Q4 results would be weighed down by the accounting effects of transferring risky assets. Shares -2.6% premarket. Outlook sours for RBS. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) abandoned its full-year profit forecast after it wrote-down £1B in October against assets connected to Lehman Brothers and Icelandic banks and as bad loans rose. It also posted £1.4B of markdowns in Q3 before new accounting rules allowed it to claim back £1.2B. CEO Stephen Hester said the latest writedowns, coming in addition to £5.9B in H1, show the bank has too much risk and could face a full-year loss. RBS is in line for a U.K. bailout, and the government could own up to 60% of the bank unless investors buy some of the £20B of stock to be issued later this year. Shares -14.9% premarket. Goldman hedge fund down $1B. A flagship Goldman Sachs (GS) hedge fund - Goldman Sachs Investment Partners - has lost almost $1B of its $6B since its launch in January, further evidence of the crisis facing the industry. "We anticipate that these results will lead to net outflows from the hedge fund industry," managers said, although GSIC itself imposed a two-year lock-in at inception. More than half of its 13% Q3 loss was on positions in commodities, basic materials, metals, mining, energy and agriculture. Tough 2009 for JPMorgan. JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon told employees the firm faces "highly challenging conditions" in 2009, but sees a possible "strong recovery" in 2010. JPM's recent acquisitions of Bear Stearns and WaMu will improve performance in the "longer term," he said. Dimon warned Asia is "going to get worse than you think" as the tidal wave that began with a collapse of the U.S. mortgage market washes over it. Still, longer-term, he sees "very substantial natural growth" in the region. iPod master leaves Apple. Tony Fadell, one of the fathers of the iPod, is leaving Apple (AAPL) for personal reasons, sources say. Former IBM (IBM) executive Mark Papermaster will take his place. During Fadell's tenure, the iPod grew from a curiosity into a major cash cow; Apple sold 54.7M iPods during its most recent fiscal year. But growth has cooled off as saturation becomes a factor in many countries. Still, Apple shows no signs of giving up any of its 70% U.S. market share. Dismal October for automakers. General Motors (GM) said October was likely the auto industry's worst month since WWII after its sales plunged 45%, Ford's (F) fell 30%, Nissan's (NSANY) declined 33%, Honda's (HMC) dropped 25%, while Toyota's (TM) declined by 23%. GM marketing chief Mark LaNeve said he believes there's plenty of pent-up demand, "but until the credit markets open up and consumer confidence improves, the entire U.S. economy, and any industry like autos that relies on financing, will suffer." U.S. auto sales are now down 14.6% YTD. "It's weaker than we were anticipating," J.D. Power's Bob Schnorbus said, warning leaders should take heed: "The auto industry is important to the economy and it should not be taken too lightly." Manufacturing paints bleak picture. The ISM's Manufacturing index fell to 38.9 in October, its lowest level since 1982, and worse than the expected 41.5. The only industries reporting growth were apparel and leather & allied products. Petroleum & coal and nonmetallic mineral products led the laggards. The weaker than expected data increases the risk the current slump will outdo the recessions of 2001 and 1991. Companies are cutting back on investments and hiring as Q3 consumer spending plunged by 3.1% - the biggest decline in 28 years. The survey "indicates a significantly faster rate of decline in manufacturing when comparing October to September," ISM director Norbert Ore said. "It appears that manufacturing is experiencing significant demand destruction as a result of recent events." Prices also rose at a much slower rate: the price index plunged to 37 from 53.5 in September - the lowest level since December 2001. Export orders dropped for the first time in 70 months. September Construction Spending fell 0.3% from August's revised numbers, better than the expected 0.8% drop. Residential private construction -1.3%; non-residential +1.2%. Earnings: Before Open Ameren (AEE): Q3 EPS of $1.17 misses by $0.08. Revenue of $2.06B (+3.2%) vs. $2.29B. Sees full-year EPS of $2.80-3.00 vs. $3.01. Shares -5.3%. (PR) Archer Daniels Midland (ADM): FQ1 EPS of $1.63 vs. consensus of $0.69. Revenue of $21.16B (+65%) vs. $15.98B. (PR) Autodesk (ADSK): Sees Q3 EPS of $0.53-0.55 vs. $0.55 consensus and revenue of $604-607M vs $624M. "The sharp downturn of the global economy is substantially impacting our business... Demand for our products fell dramatically in October in all geographies as the financial crisis worsened. (PR) Cimarex Energy (XEC): Q3 EPS of $2.19 misses by $0.07. Revenue of $576.5M (+67.7%) vs. $568M. (PR) Dean Foods (DF): Q3 EPS of $0.28 misses by $0.03. Revenue of $3.19B (+2.5%) in-line. (PR) Emerson Electric (EMR): FQ4 EPS of $0.88 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $6.7B (+11.1%) in-line. (PR) GrafTech (GTI): Q3 EPS of $0.55 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $316M (+25.7%) vs. $303M. Shares +6.7%. (PR) HCP Inc. (HCP): Q3 FFO of $0.71/share beats by $0.05. Revenue of $270M vs. $242M. Sees full-year FFO of $2.38-2.42 vs. $2.29. (PR) Holly (HOC): Q3 EPS of $1.00 beats by $0.13. Revenue of $1.72B (+42.3%) in-line. (PR) Louisiana-Pacific (LPX): Q3 EPS of -$0.38 misses by $0.08. Revenue of $390M (-17.5%) in-line. (PR) Magna International (MGA): Q3 EPS of $0.17 vs. consensus of $0.90. Revenue of $5.53B (-9%) in-line. (PR) Marvel Entertainment (MVL): Q3 EPS of $0.64 beats by $0.19. Revenue of $182.5M (+47.7%) vs. $146M. Sees full-year EPS of $2.45-2.65 vs. $1.93 and 2009 EPS of $1.00-1.35 vs. $1.94. (PR) Myriad Genetics (MYGN): FQ1 EPS of $0.30 beats by $0.16. Revenue of $74M (+52.4%) vs. $70M. (PR) NiSource (NI): Q3 EPS of $0.03 in-line. Revenue of $1.42B (+11.8%) vs. $1.36B. (PR) PPL Corp. (PPL): Q3 EPS of $0.45 misses by $0.15. Sees full-year EPS of $2.00-2.05 vs. $2.29, and 2009 EPS of $1.60-1.90 vs. $2.17. "Many of the pressures that affected our results in 2008 also are expected to continue into 2009..." (PR) Rowan (RDC): Q3 EPS of $1.00 beats by $0.13. Revenue of $527M (+5%) vs. $540M. "Continuing weakness in capital markets and commodity prices will, eventually, affect customer demand for our products and services, though we have experienced little impact thus far." (PR) St. Joe (JOE): Q3 EPS of -$0.12 misses by $0.12. Revenue of $32.8M (-57.6%) vs. $47.3M. (PR) Talisman Energy (TLM): Q3 EPS of $0.72 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $2.82B (+50.9%) vs. $2.89B. (PR) Tenneco (TEN): Q3 EPS of $0.01 misses by $0.22. Revenue of $1.5B (-3.8%) in-line. (PR) Tenet Healthcare (THC): Q3 EPS of -$0.06 misses by $0.03. Revenue of $2.14B (+5.2%) vs. $2.21B. Shares +14.1%. (PR) W&T Offshore (WTI): Q3 EPS of $0.79 misses by $0.03. Revenue of $290M (+13.6%) vs. $276M. (PR) Earnings: Monday After Close Automatic Data Processing (ADP): FQ1 EPS of $0.54 beats by $0.04. Revenue of $2.18B (+9.5%) in-line. Shares -2.5%. (PR) Coldwater Creek (CWTR): Sees Q3 sales of $225M vs. $265M consensus, and EPS of -$0.07 to -$0.09 vs. $0.03 consensus. "The overall macro-economic environment has proven to be substantially more challenging than anticipated." Shares -5.9%. (PR) Comstock Resources (CRK): Q3 EPS of $1.20 beats by $0.20. Revenue of $169M (+103.7%) vs. $158M. (PR) Embraer (ERJ): Q3 EPS of $0.32 misses by $0.07. Revenue of $1.55B (+8.1%) vs. $1.63B. (PR) EOG Resources (EOG): Q3 EPS of $2.34 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $3.22B (+226.5%). Shares +1.9%. (PR) Forest Oil (FST): Q3 EPS of $1.26 misses by $0.12. Revenue of $474M (+51.5%) vs. $465M. (PR) Herbalife (HLF): Q3 EPS of $0.89 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $M in-line. Sees Q4 EPS of $0.65-0.70 vs. $0.91, and 2009 EPS of $3.50-3.55 vs. $3.71. Shares -13.5%. (PR) MasterCard (MA): Q3 EPS of $2.47 beats by $0.22. Revenue of $1.34B (+23.7%) vs. $1.27B. Gross dollar volume rose 12.3%. "As we are not immune from the long-term effects of the current economic environment, we have significantly accelerated the focus on our cost structure..." Shares +8%. (PR) Mohawk Industries (MHK): Q3 EPS of $1.10 misses by $0.02. Revenue of $1.76B (-9%) in-line. (PR) Open Text (OTEX): Q3 EPS of $0.53 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $183M (+11.4%) vs. $179M. Shares -1.1%. (PR) Pepco Holdings (POM): Q3 EPS of $0.59 misses by $0.11. Revenue of $3.06B (+10.4%) vs. $2.73B. (PR) Pitney Bowes (PBI): Q3 EPS of $0.67 misses by $0.03. Revenue of $1.55B (+2.6%) vs. $1.6B. Sees full-year EPS of $2.75-2.82 vs. $2.85. (PR) St. Mary Land (SM): Q3 EPS of $1.20 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $324M (+31.4%) vs. $329M. Shares +1.2%. (PR) Viacom (VIA): Q3 EPS of $0.62 beats by $0.07. Revenue of $3.41B (+4.2%) vs. $3.32B. Shares +1.5%. (PR) Today's Markets Asia closed mixed Tuesday. Tokyo was the standout, +6.27% to 9,115. Shanghai -0.76% to 1,707. Hang Seng +0.28% to 14,384. BSE Sensex +2.84% to 10,631. European markets posted strong morning gains. London +1.75%. Paris +2.1%. Frankfurt +2%. U.S. futures are markedly higher at 7:00 AM. Dow +1.88% to 9506. S&P +1.96% to 988.50. Nasdaq +2.18%. Crude +1.16% to $64.65. Gold +1.49% to $737.60. Tuesday's Economic Calendar 7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales8:55 Redbook10:00 Factory Orders5:00 PM ABC Consumer Confidence Index Notable earnings before Tuesday's open: ADM, AEE, AMSC, DF, DNR, EMR, ENTG, EXPD, FE, GTI, HCP, HL, HNT, HOC, JEC, JOE, LPX, MAC, MGA, MYGN, NI, NNN, NXG, PPL, PQ, RDC, TDC, TEN, THC, TLM, VNO, WTI, XEC Notable earnings after Tuesday's close: AMMD, BRE, CBL, DCT, FCH, HRP, JKHY, ME, NHP, PXD, UPL, USU, VTR Seeking Alpha editor Rachael Granby contributed to this post. Get Wall Street Breakfast by email -- it's free and takes only seconds to sign up. After you finish reading Wall Street BreakfastSeeking Alpha's Market Currentswill keep you current all day long.
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Will Better Graphics Hardware Make Apple Gaming Blossom?
Apple's new MacBooks had gamers singing their praises when CEO Steve Jobs unveiled them last month. The company dropped integrated Intel graphics chipsets in favor of Nvidia's new GeForce 9400M, which is also integrated but which promises more than a basic step up in 3-D performance. "The new graphics chips are going to be at least twice as fast as the older MacBooks, and that should put them in the range to support more games," said Glenda Adams, who heads up internal development at Aspyr Media.
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Get Your Docs On! Tame the Wild Word Processing Application
It’s the word processing how-to you’ve all been waiting for! Yeah, yeah. We know: Text docs aren’t exactly sexy. But once we show you what you can really do with Word, your opinion of Microsoft’s cubical-geek office app will change forever.read more
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Cramer's Stop Trading! Merrill Takes a Machete to Disney
Recap of Jim Cramer's comments on Stop Trading! Monday November 3. Disney (DIS), Verizon (VZ), Comcast (CMCSA), AT&T (T), Apple (AAPL)
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Sid Meier's Pirates!
It’s me and my boys against a shipload of Spaniards. En garde!read more
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An Alternative Perspective on Apple's iPod Growth
Apple Inc. (AAPL) analysts and the media have regularly cited slowing iPod sales as a major headwind for Apple shares. The iPod has been a major force in Apple's total sales growth since it has been such a large percentage of Apple's overall revenue. A common claim is that the iPod has been so successful, that everyone has one. A seemingly positive statement, some choose to take a negative point of view. For example, “ It's not good for future growth because Apple is running out of new people to sell iPods to. Basically everyone who wants an iPod, already has one. While there will be sales resulting from the replacement cycle, it certainly won't generate the magnitude of growth exhibited in the past. Therefore, iPod sales will significantly deteriorate.”
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Marketing lessons from the US election
The polls open in a few minutes, and unlike pundits that wait until after the polls have closed, I thought I'd do the opposite. It's obvious that this is the most talked about election in the history of the world, and I think there are some lessons for every marketer, regardless of nationality or political leanings. It turns out that one way you learn about marketing is by analyzing it. (The other way is to do it). Yet people hate analyzing three really useful but emotional examples of marketing that matters: politics, organized religion and their own organizations. I figure we can start here, with the easiest of the three. This is a long post. Fine with me if you skip it and just go vote instead. Here goes:Stories really matter. More than a billion dollars spent, two 'products' that have very different features, and yet, when people look back at the election they will remember mavericky winking. You can say that's trivial. I'll say that it's human nature. Your product doesn't have features that are more important than the 'features' being discussed in this election, yet, like most marketers, you're obsessed with them. Forget it. The story is what people respond to. Mainstream media isn't powerful because we have no other choices (see below). It's powerful because they're still really good at writing and spreading stories, stories we listen to and stories we believe. TV is over. If people are interested, they'll watch. On their time (or their boss's time). They'll watch online, and spread the idea. You can't email a TV commercial to a friend, but you can definitely spread a YouTube video. The cycle of ads got shorter and shorter, and the most important ads were made for the web, not for TV. Your challenge isn't to scrape up enough money to buy TV time. Your challenge is to make video interesting enough that we'll choose to watch it and choose to share it. Permission matters (though selfish marketers still burn it). The Republican party has a long tradition of smart direct mail tactics. Over the years, they've used them to aggressively outfundraise and outcampaign the Democrats. In this election cycle, smart marketers at the Obama campaign toned down the spam and turned up the permission. They worked relentlessly to build a list, and they took care of the list. They used metrics to track open rates and (at least until the end) appeared to avoid burning out the list with constant fundraising. Anticipated, personal and relevant messages will always outpeform spam. Regardless of how it is delivered. Marketing is tribal. This one, for obvious reasons, fascinated me this cycle. Karl Rove and others before him were known for cultivating the 'base'. This was shorthand for a tribe of people with shared interests and vision (it included a number of conservatives and evangelicals). George W. Bush was able to get elected twice by embracing the base, by connecting them, by being one of them. John McCain had a dilemma. He didn't particularly like the base nor did they like him. His initial strategy was not to lead this existing tribe, but to weave a new tribe. The idea was that independents and some Democrats, together with the traditional pre-Reagan core of the Republican party, would weave together a new centrist base. Barack Obama also had a challenge. He knew that the traditional base for Democratic candidates wouldn't be sufficient to get him elected (it had failed John Kerry). So he too set out to weave a new tribe, a tribe that included progressives, the center, younger religious voters, weary veterans, internationalists, Nobel prize winners, black voters and others. Building a new tribe (in marketing and in politics) is time consuming and risky and expensive. Both set out to do this. Then, McCain made a momentous decision. He chose Sarah Palin, and did it for one huge reason: to embrace the Rove/Bush 'base'. To lead a tribe that was already there, but not yet his. He was hoping for a side effect, which was to attract Hillary Clinton's tribe, one that in that moment, was also leaderless. Seen through the lens of tribes and marketing, this is a fascinating and risky event. Are people willing to suspend disbelief or suspicion and embrace a leader in order to maintain the energy of their tribe? If it had worked, it would have been a master stroke. He would have solidified his base, grabbed key constituencies of Clinton supporters in swing states and wooed the center as well. Three tribes in one pick. In McCain's case, it failed. His choice cost him the economically-concerned middle (which went to Obama's carefully woven tribe). And it clearly cost him the mostly female Clinton tribe. Yes, he energized the conservative base, but he lost the election. If he had chosen Mike Huckabee, one could wonder what would have happened. Would this less polarizing figure been able to collect a bigger tribe for him? This is a real question for every marketer with an idea to sell. Do you find an existing tribe (Harley drivers, Manalo shoe buyers, frequent high-end restaurant diners) and try to co-opt them? Or do you try the more expensive and risky effort of building a brand new tribe? The good news is that if you succeed, you get a lot for your efforts. The bad news is that you're likely to fail. Motivating the committed outperforms persuading the uncommitted. The unheralded success factor of Obama's campaign is the get out the vote effort. Every marketer can learn from this. It's easier (far easier) to motivate the slightly motivated than it is to argue with those that either ignore you or are predisposed to not like you. Attack ads don't always work. There's a reason most product marketers don't use attack ads. All they do is suppress sales of your opponent, they don't help you. Since TV ads began, voter turnout has progressively decreased. That's because the goal of attack ads is to keep your opponent's voters from showing up. Both sides work to whittle down the other. In a winner-take-all game like a political election, this strategy is fine if it works. So why didn't the ads work this time? The tribe that Obama built identified with him. Attacking him was like attacking them. They took it personally, and their outrage led to more donations and bigger turnout. This is the lucky situation Apple finds itself in as well. Attacking an Apple product is like attacking an Apple user. We get what we deserve. The lesson that society should take away about all marketing is a simple one. When you buy a product, you're also buying the marketing. Buy something from a phone telemarketer, you get more phone telemarketers, guaranteed. Buy a gas guzzler and they'll build more. Marketers are simple people... they make what sells. Our culture has purchased (and voted) itself into the place we are today. Did I mention you should vote?
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Apple is the new Sony; Sony wants to be the new Apple
Posted by Dennis SellersApparently, Sony wants to be more like Apple, according to an BusinessWeek report. And I've heard it's trying to develop its own operating system—though his information is second hand and should be regarded as such, though some recent media reports make this seem a bit more plausible.
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Epson Artisan 800
This compact beauty packs a punch.read more
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Optioning Apple Stock
This is the second in a series of posts about recent trades based on predictions that the market has bottomed. My previous trade on QQQQ (Nasdaq Index) calls was quite profitable in a short period of time, but with volatility falling the return to risk ratio from buying options on indexes is not as attractive. Hence, I have decided to play specific stocks that tend to be more volatile; on which options are more effective. Apple (AAPL) was a prime candidate. Readers will know that I already own Apple Stock, bought at a much higher price, which I continue to hold long term. Here is the rationale behind the current purchase of the Apple call options and potential outcomes:
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The Mac Night Owl: 'Where's the next Apple killer?'
Posted by Dennis SellersOn today's commentary, Gene “Mac Night Owl” Steinberg asks, “Where's the next Apple killer?”
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Just Mobile Xtand
Honey, I shrunk the iMac.read more
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RealEstate.com adds iPhone compatible web site
Posted by Dennis SellersRealEstate.com has added an iPhone compatible web site to its growing mobile phone suite called RealEstate.com Mobile. The new mobile Web sites are free for iPhone and Google Android phone users and provide access to more than two million home listings nationwide.
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Calories for Mac OS X now at danholt4mac
Posted by Dennis SellersCalories has been acquired by danholt4mac and will be developed from now on by the company. It's an US$19 nutrition tracking and analysis utility for Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”).